


I Want To Write You A Song

by PigSlay



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, As well, Coffee Shops, M/M, No actual sex, POV Multiple, Sex Jokes, Trans Girl Niall, and it unintentionally turned into, nightclubs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 06:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12248754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PigSlay/pseuds/PigSlay
Summary: Harry Styles is a time traveler who uses the guitar, the microphone, and photography to ignore the pull in his stomach. Zayn Malik is a professional nature photographer who never expected to fall in love with something other than his work, much less a time traveler with brown curly locks. Together they go on an adventure more magical than either of them ever expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sitandadmire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sitandadmire/gifts).



> I don't know One Direction, but I know Harry isn't a time traveler, so this isn't real.
> 
> Oh my gosh. Okay, first I just gotta say. I think all writers can relate to me in that we love writing long fics - it's a great thing to lose ourselves in an alternate universe multiple times a week for months on end. However, we are also breathing a big sigh of relief when it is finally over. I really got down to the wire with this one - I finished it last night, which is really really close. But I am just SOOO glad I finished it on time, no matter if it was last night or not.
> 
> And for that I would like to thank JANEE. For staying up with me and giving me critiques and all that good stuff in Google Docs. It means a lot to me that you are always willing to help me with my fanfics. I love you, and I can't say thank you enough. <3
> 
> And of course a big thank you to the mods for letting me come in and claim this beautiful prompt even though I didn't technically sign up for the author sign-ups... I really appreciate it because writing this was a lot of fun. :)
> 
> And finally, the biggest thank you to my ARTIST, KRIS. She is really amazing for communicating with me on what she absolutely did not want in this fic and for that I am very appreciative. I love you Kris and thank you for letting me go on this adventure with you. I am really hoping this fic is everything you ever hoped for. :) <3
> 
> Here's Kris' awesome moodboard that inspired this fic: http://birdstattoo.tumblr.com/post/165977467838/i-want-to-write-you-a-song-ao3-written-by :)
> 
> Last note: This is the first long fic I have not chaptered (other than the Epilogue) and for that I am sorry because usually I do chapter my long fics, but I don't know, this time around there just never seemed to be a good pausing point for a new chapter (except for the Epilogue). However, super long "oneshots" seem to be a popular thing in this fandom so hopefully you all don't mind. :)

**Harry**

_10 years old_

“Harry, sweetie, we need to talk,” his mommy greets him when he gets home from school.

“If it’s about how our… you know…,” he kind of motions to his private part, making a disgusted face. “…If it’s about how those are gonna look when I grow up, my teacher already gave me that talk today.”

His daddy covers his mouth, and Harry can see the tips of his lips curving upward. Harry wonders if he’s about to vomit – that is after all what _he_ wanted to do when his teacher talked about it.

“Uh… No, dear,” she continues. “It’s definitely not that. Although it is sort of related. Come on, sit down on the couch with us.” Harry frowns, preparing himself for more talk about gross private parts.

“So what did your teacher tell you that this time is called?” She asks once he’s beside her. “The time of you growing up, I mean.”

“Ummm…” He tries to think for a moment. He hadn’t known there would be a test. It’s on the tip of his tongue. “Oh, I know! He said it was called ‘puberty’.”

“Exactly, honey,” she says, giving him a high five. He giggles; he’s happy when he gets questions mommy asks correct. “Now, during puberty, in addition to the gross stuff, something else is going to happen to you. You’re going to become a time traveler.”

“Ooh, you mean like Phil of the Future?!” Harry gasps, smiling. “That sounds awesome! When do I get my time machine? I don’t want to wait for puberty to test it out!”

He’s starting to get up and run towards the closet where it’s probably kept, it is after all the biggest room in the house.

However, before he can get too far, his daddy grabs him. “Woah, woah, woah. Slow down.” His daddy puts him on his lap, and he pouts a bit. He wants to go to his time machine. “Unfortunately, dear, it’s less consensual than that.”

“‘Consensual’?” Harry questions. His teacher hasn’t taught him that word yet. His daddy gives the imaginary microphone back to his mommy now.

“Honey,” she says, her eyes getting a little wet now. He doesn’t want her to start crying. Maybe he can use his time machine to take her to a night out in the 1960s or something, to make her feel better. “It’s not going to be like Phil of the Future at all. There isn’t a machine, and you can’t choose when or where you will go.”

“I don’t understand…” He really doesn’t. How is he supposed to take her out for a fancy dinner in the 1960s if there’s no time machine?

She starts crying, and he wants to go over to hug her, but his daddy gets his attention before he can. “Harry, I want you to imagine something with me for a moment.”

“Ooh, I have a great imagination!” He claps, excited.

His daddy nods at him, but he doesn’t look as excited about it as Harry is. “Okay, I want you to imagine yourself on the playground with your friends. Imagine that while you’re in the middle of making an awesome sandcastle, suddenly you leave the playground. You don’t know where you’re going, and when you finally stop you don’t know where you are. You’ve never seen this place, or these people, before. None of your friends or family are around and you don’t know how to get back.”

Harry starts crying himself now. “I don’t like imagining this.”

“I know,” his daddy tells him. “But that’s what it’s going to be like, when you start time traveling. And it’s never going to be easy, but-”

“NO!” He starts wailing, not able to see anything through his tears, but still somehow knowing which way he needs to go to get to his room. “I don’t want this st*pid puberty!”

He feels guilty afterwards for saying the s word, but he doesn’t stop to apologize as he runs up to his room, not being able to look at his parents anymore, and slams his door. That night, in his room, he and his dinosaur toy work together to try to come up with ways to stop this ‘puberty’ thing from happening. His dinosaur toy says she can crush it into a million pieces with her big feet. He likes that idea.

 

 

_16 years old_

Harry has been time travelling for several years now. The first occurrence was difficult, and every day since has been truly awful. His parents told him it would be an adjustment but even on the days where he doesn’t time travel, he has a hard time falling asleep because he’s not sure where he will be tomorrow – or even in five minutes while he’s just getting comfortable.

Sometimes he’s not really able to tell if he’s in the past or the future until he looks at people’s phones. His body has never taken him to any time before the year 2002 AD, at least not yet. He’s actually grateful for that if he’s honest. Not to sound too much like a millennial, but he doesn’t know what he’d do without technology around him.

Today he’s back in his house in the present. For now. He’s not sure he can still call it his house since he disappears from it so much to times where it doesn’t even exist. Speak of the devil, right now he can feel the pull starting to happen again.

He grumbles as it starts to take him away to who-even-knows-when. Could be two days ago, could be two days from now, could be twenty years from now. He doesn’t know until it stops. And then it does, and he’s on top of a snow-covered mountain in his short-sleeved shirt.

He screams all at once from how cold he is right now. Just then he notices there are people at the bottom of the mountain looking up at him, and he feels embarrassed. He hadn’t known anyone was around, otherwise he would’ve screamed… a little less loud.

Suddenly someone taps him on the shoulder, and as he looks up at them he prepares to be told off for screaming in what looks like a sledding resort or something. He’s met with the eyes of someone with black hair, brown skin, and brown eyes, who looks around his age. Maybe a year older at the most.

“Are you okay?” The person asks. Harry nods very slowly. Apparently this person isn’t convinced by the obvious lie though. “Mum! Bring out our extra gear!”

“That’s really not necessary,” he tells them. Even though his arms and legs are absolutely ice cold, he really doesn’t want to take advantage of someone he doesn’t know.

“Oh yes it is,” someone else – the person’s mom, Harry thinks – says. “Come here, let’s get you into something warm.” She takes him over to her car and helps him put on a big coat, snow pants, snow boots, and gloves. The snow boots are a bit tight but he’s still miraculously able to get them on.

“Wow, thank you so much.” He smiles at her, feeling so much better already. “I feel bad making you guys use all your extra gear on me though.”

“Don’t worry about it honey,” she responds honestly. “It hurts more for me to see a child cold in an environment like this, than it does to give them some clothes.”

“Yeah,” the black-haired teenager from earlier is now by his side as well. “Besides, we brought it for my dad who was driving separately – and he told us he wouldn’t be coming because something came up at the office.”

Harry grins, playing with the snow to hopefully, at least for a little while, make his body distracted from the idea of pulling away from this timeframe. “So, can I know the names of the people who were nice enough to give me their things to keep me warm?”

“I’m Zayn,” the teenager says, shaking his hand. “And this is my mum, Trisha. She decided to take me down here to celebrate the last week of winter break.”

“Wow, is it already the last week?” Harry slams his head. He’s gotten good at pretending to be surprised when people give hints about what time of year it is, he thinks. “I’m so bad at dates, especially during breaks.”

Zayn giggles. “Don’t worry, I’m the same way. Anyway, can we know your name too now?”

Harry can’t believe he got so distracted that he straight up forgot to introduce himself. “Oh yeah of course. I’m Harry. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” The two of them smile at each other, and apparently they stand there too long for Trisha’s liking.

“Come on son,” she says to Zayn. “Let’s go sledding!”

“Oh yeah,” he replies, like he completely forgot about the whole reason he was even here in the first place. “Harry, come sled with us! We have enough sleds for three!”

Harry awkwardly wobbles back and forth in his spot, he really doesn’t think that’s a good idea. “I don’t know, I don’t sled very often.”

“Don’t worry, we can show you. Please?” Zayn is giving him a pleading smile and Harry isn’t sure why but that’s enough to get him hooked.

“Alright, fine. But if I die, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Zayn laughs at that, and the three of them all go to the starting point at the top of the mountain.

Trisha gives the boys two sleds, then gets on her own about an arm’s distance away from them. _This is a horrible idea_ , Harry thinks to himself. _What if I disappear in the middle of going down the mountain? What if I can never give them their stuff back because I never see them again?_

He’s stressing. He’s really, really stressing. He tries to stop himself from stressing because that will only make the pull come faster. But when he tries to stop himself from stressing, guess what? That only causes even more stress.

He can’t do this, he thinks. He has to get off of this sled, thank these nice people for their hospitality, and embrace the pull that is about to happen. He turns to face Zayn to tell him he’s going to leave, but the second he sees Zayn’s beautiful face staring back at him, all stress seemingly subsides.

“Okay kids,” Trisha says now, moving his attention away from Zayn’s eyes. “You ready?”

“The question, mum, is are _you_ ready? Because both you and Harry are going to eat… my… dust-” right after he finishes saying that he pushes off and sleds down the mountain, screaming all the way.

“That’s not fair!” Harry calls after him. “You got a head start!” He pushes off now too, on a mission to get to Zayn. He, too, screams the whole way down. It’s much louder – and more frightened – than Zayn’s screams, but it’s also the most fun he thinks he’s had in a while. He doesn’t feel the pull at all, and he makes it all the way down without switching times.

However, when he _does_ make it all the way down though, he and Zayn basically crash into each other. He tries to warn him ahead of time, tries to yell, “Look out Zayn!” but unfortunately Zayn doesn’t hear him and the two of them are knocked over on top of each other.

Harry instantly feels terrible as he gets up and looks down at Zayn. “Oh my gosh, Zayn, are you okay? Are you hurt?” He feels so guilty. Zayn treated him with so much kindness and now he might be hurt because of him. “I’m so, so, so sorry Zayn.” He’s starting to cry. “I had no idea that was going to-”

His apology is interrupted as Zayn starts laughing and sitting up slowly but surely. Harry isn’t sure what to make of that, an injury wouldn’t be funny to him right?

When Zayn finishes rising up from the snow, he puts his hands up in celebration. “That was the best thing ever! Let’s go again!” He starts running back up the mountain and Harry has to do a double take, but eventually starts following right behind him.

“Hey!” He yells up to him. “You don’t get a head start again this time!”

The two of them have several “re-matches”, most of which just end in both of them falling onto each other and having snowball fights at the bottom of the mountain. Eventually though, Trisha decides it’s time for her and Zayn to go back home.

Even though Harry knew there was no way it could be anything but temporary, this day with Zayn has by far been the best day of his life since before he started time traveling all the time. He didn’t want it to ever end.

“Is there somewhere we can take you on our way home?” Zayn asks kindly. Harry would love to not be somewhere as cold as this place waiting for his body to take him to the next time, but where exactly is he supposed to tell Zayn to go? He doesn’t exactly live here.

“Um, sure,” he responds. “We can start driving and I will tell you where to stop.”

So the three of them start riding in Trisha’s car. Zayn doesn’t make much conversation on the way, but it’s not awkward at all. Harry watches Zayn play a game on his phone, and looks out at the beautiful clouds. No matter what year you’re in, Harry has found, nature is never anything but beautiful.

Harry sees an area by some farmland houses and asks them to stop there, telling them he can walk the rest of the way home from here. Zayn steps outside with him and gives him a hug. “Thank you for joining us for our sledding trip, Harry. It was awesome.”

“Of course,” Harry replies. “Thank you for having-”

Harry is carried away to a different time now, the last picture in his mind Zayn’s smiling face as he warps all the way to who-knows-where once again.

He lands on a park-side bench and sighs. “…Me.”

 

**Zayn**

_24 years old_

The sun is starting to set and, for most people Zayn’s age, that means it’s time to go to sleep. Not for him though.

“Wow,” one of his co-workers, Louis, exhales after helping him finish setting up the tripod. “That is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

“I know.” Zayn smiles widely. He knows he can’t talk about it too long though, because the sun always finishes setting way faster than he thinks it’s going to. So, after making triple sure the camera is at the angle he wants it to be at, he dives straight into his craft, taking pictures of the sunset – and the sunset reflected on the ocean.

As Zayn takes each picture, he thinks to himself, not for the first time, about how this is the best job a guy could ever have. He’s wanted this for as long as he can remember. Well, that’s not entirely true. When he was younger he wanted to be a singer, but he quickly learned from the media’s treatment of his favorite idols that the business is too cruel for him to want to go into.

He _also_ quickly learned that he really loved taking pictures. Not of himself, but of nature. From flowers blooming in his family’s garden, to the sunsets and sunrises, to even a few pictures of mulch of all things, Zayn took a lot of pictures when he was given his first camera as a kid and well into teenhood. So many, in fact, that he decided to sign up for photography in his freshman year of college, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Zayn went on to practice and improve his craft so much throughout college, that he got a visual arts scholarship for his top choice University. Uni was a little intimidating at first, especially with having a scholarship to uphold, but Zayn got the hang of it and met some great friends along the way, a lot of whom became his future co-workers.

“These are so sick,” he mutters now, looking back through his camera at the pictures he just took. Sometimes there will be a few pictures that didn’t come out as well as he wanted, or weren’t what he was going for, but all of these came out perfect tonight. He can’t wait to upload them.

***

Today has to be one of the best days of Zayn’s life – if not _the_ best. Today he’s standing in a small gallery where his photographs are currently being hung up. In about an hour an exhibit is going to start of the photographs he’s been working on recently.

It’s going to be organized by category; there’s a section of landscape pictures, a section of flower pictures he took on his family vacation, and a section of pictures he took during one really bad rainstorm outside his house (yeah, even though it was awful he still had to get it on camera; he’s weird like that, he supposes).

As he helps put up an ocean picture, he can’t help but sigh happily. He can’t believe that in just a bit people are going to come in here and see his photography – his artwork. And even if it’s only a few people, that’s still way more than he ever would have imagined looking at (and possibly buying) his pictures when he was a teenager looking back at his photos of sandcastles on his school computer.

Before he knows it, an hour passes, and people start pouring in. Some he knows, some he doesn’t know.

Someone taps him on the shoulder. He turns around and gasps. “Hey roomie.”

“Liam!” He nearly screams, bringing him in for a big hug. Liam was his roommate in University, but he hasn’t really seen him since the two of them graduated, since Liam was offered a job in his field (computer science) all the way in the States. “What are you doing here? How long have you been back in the UK? How did you, like, find out about this?”

“One question at a time, Zayn.” Liam giggles, looking endeared all the same. “I actually haven’t been back in the UK for long. I told my boss that for once in my life I was going to take some vacation time, so I chose nine days this week to take it.”

“Why this week in particular?” Zayn asks. It’s not exactly a holiday or anything right now. The only thing he can think is that his family finally decided enough was enough and he needed to visit them right now. He can see Liam’s sister Ruth using those exact words too.

He shrugs, but Zayn can tell in his expression that he actually does know and doesn’t want to tell him. He doesn’t know what to think about that. “I don’t know, I was just a bit homesick I guess, so I like requested off for whatever was two weeks ahead.” He shrugs again.

Zayn really doesn’t believe that at all, especially since he’s overdoing it with the shrugs right now. Zayn knows Liam, and when he’s being honest he doesn’t feel the need to shrug a million times. Just once does it.

Just as he’s about to say something to this extent though, Louis and his girlfriend Niall appear. Louis has always been Liam’s human liar detector, so before he says anything else, he looks like he's ready to call him on whatever it is he's lied about.

“Liam, mate!” He swings his arm around him. Zayn’s on the edge of his seat to see what’s going to happen next. Louis never disappoints. “So glad your boss allowed you to miss a week of work to support Mr. Zayn here. I’m so glad me and Niall’s invitation for you got to the States on time!”

Liam is blushing, and Zayn smirks. So that’s what happened, he realizes. It wasn’t just a ‘random week off’. He came here purposely to surprise Zayn.

“I thought we were supposed to surprise him with that information later,” Liam mumbles.

“Yeah, we were,” Louis agrees. “But embarrassing you was more important to me.” Niall laughs, and Louis and her start heading off to look around the gallery. “Talk to you later Z!”

“Later Lou!” Zayn calls after him, then turns back to Liam.

“Piece of s***,” Liam whispers, causing Zayn to chuckle. Liam and Louis have been friends since Uni. One night Zayn had invited Louis over to his and Liam’s dorm room to play some video games with the two of them. Liam and Louis became friends pretty quickly after that night, and embarrassing each other is definitely an important part of their friendship, Zayn quickly learned. Sometimes Zayn would join in on embarrassing Liam with Louis and the three of them would laugh about it later.

“Well,” Zayn says now, smiling. “Liam, I am really honored that you took a week off of work to come see me. I know how much you love your job, and it really means a lot to me that you came all the way here for me.” He gives him a hug.

“Of course,” Liam grins back into the hug. “When Louis and Niall sent me the info about it I was like ‘it’s about d*** time’.” Zayn laughs. “No seriously, you’re the most amazing photographer I’ve ever met, Zayn. The fact that it took this long for you to get your own exhibit honestly annoys me. But I’m glad it finally happened.”

The two of them smile at each other for a moment. “Well, thanks bro. It really means a lot. Now, are we just gonna stand here or are you gonna let me show you around?”

Now it’s Liam’s turn to laugh. “Of course, give me what I came for.” He winks, which makes Zayn snort. Trading terrible innuendos is another thing the three of them definitely spent a lot of time doing in Uni.

 

**Harry**

_23 years old_

It’s early afternoon. Harry enjoys the image of the sun lighting up the sky and the touch of his fingers against the camera as he takes a picture of it. The smell of freshly cut grass fills the air, and the scattered voices of people on their way to all their various places. If he had it his way, he would have every day be like this. Unfortunately though, seasons change quickly – especially when you’re a time traveler.

It’s been seven years since Harry went through puberty, and with it, also started disappearing – sometimes in the most inconvenient scenarios. He dropped out of school because of “too many absences” but eventually was able to get his GCSEs. Not that he ever sees himself going to Uni with his condition, but it makes him feel accomplished.

Nowadays, he wouldn’t say things are ‘easy’ but things have definitely improved by a long shot. He taught himself how to play the guitar and he also got himself a camera, which he always has with him. No matter which time he’s transported to, he always takes his camera with him. He finds that taking pictures and playing music really helps to distract him from the pull in his stomach, even if just for a little while.

Earlier today, he overheard someone talking about a local nature photography exhibit featuring photos by someone named Zayn Malik. Harry has always loved seeing other people’s photographs, feeling like he can learn so much from other photographers. The name ‘Zayn’ also sounds really familiar. He isn’t sure why though; maybe he saw photos taken by this person in either the future or the past and they stuck out to him so much that he remembered that name.

In any event, after taking a few more of his own pictures, he starts heading towards the building that he heard those people say it would be at.

As soon as he goes through the front door, he has to gasp. The photos on the walls are so stunning. Whoever this Zayn person is has obviously been practicing and perfecting their craft for a while.

He takes a good look around; there are multiple sections dedicated to different categories, he quickly realizes. The one closest to the door – the one he’s been looking at – is labeled ‘flowers’ and has a story written on a sheet of paper above the photos about how Zayn was so amazed by all the different types of flowers on a family vacation that there was no way to _not_ take pictures of all of them. Looking at the flowers, he can definitely see why. He would probably be the exact same way if he went there.

Something draws him towards the ‘landscapes’ section next. He’s not sure why, maybe it’s the immediately eye-catching photo of a sunset reflected against the ocean. In any event though, as soon as he gets over, he has to pinch his lips to stop himself from gasping.

There’s a photo there of a snow-covered mountain. Not just any snow-covered mountain, but one that gave Harry the best day of his pubescent life. He remembers it all perfectly; a kind family giving him their extra snow gear even though they didn’t know him, sledding down and climbing back up, demanding multiple re-matches, and finally… disappearing before he could properly thank these nice people.

Zayn. Zayn was one of those people. It all makes sense now. That’s why the name rang a bell, because it’s the same Zayn who invited him to go sledding all those years ago. Harry had never thought he’d be in the same time period as him again, and yet here he is. _Well I’ll be darned._

“Hey.” A voice says behind him. He squeals a tiny bit as he turns around, not having realized someone was behind him. He hopes he wasn’t blocking their view or anything. However, when he turns around, he realizes it’s the man of the hour himself.

“Oops, sorry,” Zayn apologizes now. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to my gallery. We still have a little bit of food left in the other room-” he motions behind himself “-but it will be gone soon probably. Also, all photos marked in red have been sold, but if you want any of the ones that haven’t been, be sure to tell me. I hope you enjoy yourself.” He smiles, and Harry can’t help but smile back, butterflies forming in his stomach.

“Thank you so much,” he says. “Um…” he looks back at the landscapes wall and realizes the mountain photo doesn’t have any red markings on it. He points up to it. “H-how much are you selling this one for?”

Zayn’s grin widens as he looks at the picture. “That one is one of my favorites. I took it when I was sixteen on a trip with my mum, and let’s just say it was one of the best days of my life.” Even though Harry knows that comment doesn’t _have_ to mean anything, he still finds the bubbles in his stomach growing even stronger at it.

Zayn seems to snap out of his trance and remember he’s at a gallery and not back on that mountain. Harry can completely relate to that feeling, even all these years later. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night I guess.” He clears his throat. “That photo will be €130.”

Harry opens up his wallet and gets the money out. For someone who doesn’t stay in the same place forever, he sure has made a pretty good amount of money from playing guitar at small clubs and such.

As he looks up from his wallet to give Zayn the money, Zayn’s giving him a weird look. “What?” he asks, making extra sure he didn’t forget a Euro or something.

“I’m sorry, you just look familiar,” he says, cocking his head to the side as he takes a good look at Harry’s face. It’s making Harry a bit sweaty he must admit. “Have I met you before?”

 _Yes,_ he wants to respond. _You met me when we were both teenagers on that snow mountain I’m buying a picture of, but I had to leave because I’m a time traveler and it stinks._

However, because Harry wasn’t born yesterday, he knows darn well not to say that out loud to people he’s not super close to. So instead he says, “Maybe you saw one of my shows? I play guitar at a lot of local clubs and stuff.”

“Hmm…” Zayn considers this. “I don’t really think that’s it, but I might just have to go see one of your shows now. Are you gonna be performing anywhere nearby soon?”

Harry’s heart skips several beats at this, and he isn’t sure why he’s so excited about the idea of Zayn coming to one of his shows. “I would love for you to!” Probably too forward, he thinks immediately after saying it. “Umm… I mean, I’m going to be performing at Club Kiwi tomorrow at around 7:30 PM, if you wanted to come to that.”

“Sounds cool,” Zayn agrees. The two of them kind of stand there grinning at each other for a minute, and then Zayn seems to remember the whole reason he’s here in the first place. “Oh my gosh, I completely forgot.” He lightly slaps his head as he takes Harry’s money finally, goes off somewhere, and brings back the photo. “Thank you for coming to see my gallery, uh…?” Harry can tell he’s trying to figure out whether he told him his name or not.

“Harry,” he responds. “And since that’s a very common name, they’ll announce me as Harry Styles at Club Kiwi.” He giggles slightly at how many first name twins he has met over the years.

“Harry…” Zayn repeats, looking like he is remembering something again. He shakes it off though. “Well, it was nice to meet you Harry. And I can’t wait to come see you tomorrow. I’m sure your set is going to rock.”

“Thank you.” Harry thinks his cheeks are hurting with how much he’s been smiling today, but there are worse pains for sure. “And your… umm… ‘set’ rocks too.” He motions to all the pictures around the gallery.

Zayn cracks up. “Thanks. Well, I’m gonna go talk to my co-workers now, see you tomorrow.” He waves goodbye, which Harry returns.

Harry breathes, feeling like he’s walking on air as he holds the photo of that mountain in his hands, not wanting to drop it. He can feel the pull in his tummy, but he’s determined to not let it happen. Not until after he’s done with his Club Kiwi set tomorrow.

He decides to rush to the small hotel he’s currently staying at and practice some of his set to help make the pull go away. Hopefully it’s just the right time of day that he won’t get any noise complaints from the other people staying at the hotel. If he does, well, forget them to be honest. He has a stunningly-beautiful photographer to impress in one day.

***

As far as Harry’s concerned, this is the most important show of his life. Even more important than the show at that club Rihanna was visiting a while ago.

Zayn may not be a celebrity in the traditional sense of the word, but he’s still one to Harry. He’s not sure why but to him it’s really important that he impresses him; maybe because he’s the closest thing he’s ever had to a friend since he started time traveling, even if just for one day. Most other people just treat him as a bum who doesn’t do anything, but Zayn treated him kindly with no questions asked.

He’s a big ball of nerves right now if he’s quite honest, but the tug in his tummy is the last thing on his mind. He will not allow it to take him this time, not before he can play at this club and (hopefully) impress Zayn.

It’s a very small club, so the acts don’t hang backstage before their set. Instead they just get their names called out on a speaker and then come out from the audience onto the stage. So when the announcer calls out “Harry Styles!”, he heads out from where he’s standing at the front of the crowd, guitar in hand, and gets up on the stage.

People are already clapping as he plugs his guitar into the amplifier and makes sure it’s in tune. As he’s doing this, he smiles out at the crowd and notices a specific familiar face smiling back at him. His heart skips a beat, and he has to work very hard to return his body and brain’s focuses to the guitar sitting on his lap.

“Good evening Club Kiwi,” he says once he’s one hundred percent sure his guitar is in tune. The small crowd echoes ‘good evening’ back at him. “So I gotta say, kiwis are definitely one of my favorite fruits. So to be performing at a club named after them, well, that’s aces.” The crowd laughs.

“Anyway,” he continues. “This first song I’m going to do is a slower song. I know a few of you have been drinking, but please don’t pass out until my set is over.” He awkwardly laughs, feeling like that wasn’t a good joke – but the crowd, including Zayn, seems to actually find it funny. That makes him feel a little bit better about himself. “So this is ‘Ever Since New York’. I hope you like it.”

One thing Harry has learned ever since he started playing, is that you don’t want to stare at one specific person in the audience. You want to look around at the entire audience, or look at your guitar for a few seconds, but never one specific person.

However, even though he knows this is like Performing 101, he still can’t help but take several looks at Zayn throughout his set. How could you not? His face is perfect, from his cheekbones that must have been sculpted by God to his lips to his eyelashes.

By the time he’s finished with his set, he finds himself needing to go and get some water fast.

 

**Zayn**

After the performance is over, Zayn is left thinking about how absolutely blown away he is. He would never have imagined some of those notes could come out of Harry’s mouth. Not that he thought Harry wouldn’t be good or anything like that, but speaking voices can sometimes be a bit deceiving in showing – or not showing – what one can also do as a singer.

The next act comes on stage – someone named Lauren Jauregui – and Zayn decides to look around for Harry. He sees some long curly brown locks over by the end of the bar, away from the taps.

He goes over, taps on the person’s shoulder to see if his theory is correct, and apparently shouldn’t have.

“Oh my gosh! Can’t a boy enjoy a Shirley Temple in here without being-” Harry turns around to face Zayn and stops. “Oh, Zayn, it’s you. I’m sorry for yelling.”

“Nah man, it’s okay, I should’ve said something.” Zayn giggles. “I just came over here to tell you that your set was awesome. I had no idea you would be able to sing so well.”

Harry blushes at the compliment. “Oh stop!”

“It’s true,” Zayn says, inviting himself to sit in the chair next to Harry’s. “I’m also surprised you’re sticking with the virgin drinks after a show. Most musicians I know usually at least have a beer after they do a show, to like, unwind.”

Harry takes a sip of his Shirley Temple, looking like he’s considering this. “Well, to me, performing itself _is_ unwinding. Like, performing songs I wrote in front of people – even if it’s just a small group of people – is my comfort place. It’s where I feel most at ease. It’s when I’m _not_ doing something creative that I start losing my mind.”

Zayn nods, really liking that answer. He feels like he’s the same way with photography too. When he’s taking pictures and downloading them, he feels relaxed, but when he has to deal with pretty much every other aspect of real life, things are not as fun.

As if reading his mind, the next thing Harry asks is, “How did the rest of your showcase go yesterday?”

Zayn bites his lip. “It was awesome. I sold all the rest of my pictures, and it was such an amazing feeling knowing all those people truly enjoyed something of mine.” He smiles widely just thinking about it.

“You know,” Harry says after a moment. “I never got the chance to tell you before now, but I’m a photographer too.”

“Really?” Zayn asks, with Harry nodding. “Musician _and_ a photographer, the ladies and fellas must all be lining up to get a piece of that.” Harry cracks up.

From the stage Zayn can hear the singer, Lauren Jauregui, saying, “And for my last song of the night I’m going to bring out my friend Ashley!”

 _‘Last song’?_ Zayn repeats in his head. How long have he and Harry been talking? But then he remembers Harry’s set was only three songs so maybe he hasn’t been sitting here that long after all.

“So like,” he starts after Harry doesn’t say anything for a few moments. “Are you gonna actually show me your pictures or are you just gonna be a tease?”

Harry giggles. “Of course. I was just trying to find the perfect picture to show you.” He scooches his seat closer until their shoulders are bumping, showing Zayn the picture on his camera. A gasp escapes Zayn’s lips at how beautiful it is. It’s a picture of a fresh rainbow in the sky and he can see the rain droplets still on the plants below. It’s almost like he can smell this picture.

“Wow,” Zayn exhales. “That really _is_ a perfect picture, I must say.” Harry scooches back a bit, smiling. “Where did you learn to take such amazing pictures?”

“Umm… Actually, nowhere.” Harry shrugs. “I taught myself most things. Of course, my parents told me how to press the button and zoom in and that type of stuff, but…” he giggles. “Most of the stuff I know now, I know from spending too much time taking a million pictures over the years.”

Zayn shakes his head, disbelieving. “No way. You’re telling me you learned how to take a picture like _that_ , all by yourself with no formal education?”

Harry chuckles. “Well, I tend to be travelling a lot, so I’m rarely in a place long enough to really take lectures.” He scratches the back of his neck. “However, I always have my camera no matter where I am.” He shrugs again, as if he’s feeling embarrassed by admitting this or something. Zayn doesn’t understand why.

“Well, have you ever considered online lectures?” Zayn asks. Harry raises his eyebrows at that. “I mean, you don’t really _need_ it with how talented you are, but if it’s something you ever want to do, it’s always an option.” He takes a sip of his own glass of champagne, which he forgot until now he had with him.

Harry, too, takes a sip of his drink. “You know, I hadn’t. Maybe I’ll consider looking into that sometime.” He finishes his Shirley Temple up and wipes his mouth. “Anyways, it was nice talking to you. Thank you for coming to see me.” He leaves a five dollar tip for the bar staff.

“Wait!” Zayn calls. Harry turns back around. “I don’t want this to be the only time I ever talk to you again. Could I maybe have your phone number?”

Harry bites his lips, swallowing. “Sure.” His voice cracks, then he clears his throat. “I mean, of course. Absolutely.”

With that the two of them exchange phone numbers. “I know you said you’re travelling a lot,” Zayn says. “But I hope I can hang out with you again soon?”

Harry bites his lip, looking down at his shoes. “I don’t want to make any promises that I can’t keep, but I hope so.” He returns his gaze to Zayn’s face for about five seconds and then looks down again. “I really, really hope so.”

The two of them end up talking for a few more minutes and watching one of the next acts – Lana – perform. Soon after Lana’s done though, Harry says goodbye.

“Thank you so much again for coming to see me perform,” Harry tells him. “It really meant a lot to me.”

“Of course,” Zayn replies. “And if you ever have any more shows nearby, be sure to tell me about them so I can go see you.”

Zayn just catches Harry’s face turning red before he ducks away. He stifles a giggle at the action. “Um, sure, yeah that would be cool.” He quickly turns towards the door and Zayn can tell he’s still a little red. He really does giggle that time. “Bye Zayn.”

“Bye Harry. See you soon I hope.”

Harry stops for a second at that, and murmurs, “I hope so too” before walking out the door.

Zayn decides to stay a little bit longer to get his drink on (but not too much because he came here alone). After he realizes it’s nine o’clock though, he mutters “oh s***” and rushes to go home. He does, after all, still have a job to get to tomorrow.

***

Two days later, Zayn’s waking up at way-too-early-o’clock. He grumbles as he practically slams the alarm clock off.

Today he’s going to take some photographs of this very popular hiking spot. He has to wake up early because he needs that perfect view of the sunrise hitting the mountain.

He stretches and as much as he wants to just lay back down and pretend his alarm didn’t go off, the bigger part of him wants to see that beautiful sunrise touching the mountain. So, he gets up, puts on some jeans and a sweatshirt, and gets on the road.

As soon as he gets out of his car and takes a good look at what he’s working with, any stress about having to wake up this early seemingly fades away. Wow, what a view that is. He’s by himself this time, because he didn’t want his friends to have to wake up this early too. And also because maybe he wants to keep some of his pictures to himself, gosh darn it.

He gets to the perfect position and zooms in on his camera a bit. After taking a few pictures, he just stares at the sunrise for a bit before finally looking back at his handiwork. He wouldn’t be in this business if he didn’t love pictures, but even with the most advanced cameras nothing can truly compare to the real thing. He sighs happily and takes a few more pictures before he notices a familiar shape on the mountain.

“Harry?” he asks, squinting. Apparently he shouldn’t have said that though because it catches Harry off guard and he sort-of falls. He picks himself back up again, but is very out of breath and looking around for who said his name. Zayn decides to go towards him.

“Oh hi Zayn,” Harry says when he arrives, still looking like he’s trying to regain focus. “You know, you really shouldn’t catch a hiker off guard like that. They could, like, fall or something.” He laughs awkwardly.

“I’m sorry,” Zayn replies sincerely. “I was doing a sunrise shoot and like just noticed you and thought I’d say hi. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing pretty good.” His exhaustion from sort-of falling seems to have completely faded by now. “How about you?”

“Yeah, I’m uh… I’m really good too.” Zayn smiles, which Harry returns. “I didn’t picture you to be the hiker type.”

Harry shrugs. “Well, singing might exercise my diaphragm but it doesn’t exercise anything else.” He giggles. “So you know, I had to find something that filled that important void.”

Zayn laughs back. “Yeah, sure, alright.”

“Besides,” he continues. “I love looking at the sunrise.” Zayn nods, and he hadn’t even realized until just now that the two of them are sitting down on the mountain next to each other.

“Me too,” Zayn says, then thinks about how awkward that must sound. “I mean, obviously, or else I wouldn’t be taking pictures of it.” He shakes his head.

Harry laughs at that. “Well, now that the sun is much higher in the sky than it was a few minutes ago, what are you going to do?”

Now it’s Zayn’s turn to laugh. “Um, well, I have too much to do today to go back to sleep, so I’m probably going to, like, go get coffee or something.”

“You know,” Harry responds after a second. “That sounds like a fantastic idea. Can I go with you?”

Zayn is confused. “Aren’t you going to finish your hike though?”

Harry shrugs. “Nah. I’ve found that after being interrupted my energy for hiking the rest goes down a lot.” Zayn blushes at that ‘interrupted’ part, feeling guilty. Harry taps him on the shoulder to turn his face back to him though. “Zayn, it’s okay. I’m not mad. But, uh, do you want to go together?”

Zayn now starts blushing for a different reason, feeling unusually happy that Harry wants to go with him. “Um, yeah, sure. Of course.”

Harry stands up now, holding out a hand to help Zayn up, which he accepts. “So like,” Harry says awkwardly. “You brought your own car, right? Cause I kinda walked here…”

Zayn chuckles at Harry walking all the way here for the sole purpose of walking even more. “Of course.”

The two of them walk to Zayn’s car, and Harry starts getting weirdly pumped up for this coffee. Not that Zayn can blame him, personally. Coffee is amazing.

 

**Harry**

He can’t believe his luck. When he asked Zayn if he could join him for coffee, he hadn’t expected him to actually say yes. And yet here Harry is with his bagel and coffee with like five half-and-half sugars inside it, sitting across from Zayn with his banana muffin and plain black coffee.

“Bro,” Zayn laughs as Harry pours the last packet of half-and-half in his coffee. “There’s not even gonna be any actual coffee left in there once you’re done with it.”

“That’s exactly the idea!” Harry responds, and he’s not even being sarcastic. “Coffee on its own is just so bitter and gross. It needs a little flavor to make it taste good.”

Zayn shakes his head, taking a sip of his own disgusting plain coffee. “Oh, youths.”

Harry blinks several times. “I’m like, probably a year younger than you at most.” He drinks some of his superiorly-creamed coffee. _Ah_ , he thinks. _Perfection._

“Oh yeah,” Zayn says, a face like he thinks he’s about to prove a point. “How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-three,” Harry responds easily, smirking as Zayn’s face falls. “How old are _you_?”

He obviously can’t think of a good enough smart-aleck response for that. “Yeah, alright. Well, black coffee is still the best.” He looks like he’s trying to hide a smile.

“Beg to differ,” Harry murmurs with a big smile, swallowing down more of his drink.

A few moments of comfortable silence pass before Zayn speaks again. “So I’m sorry if this is too much of a personal question, but I was wondering… What’s your family like?” Harry pauses, contemplating this. “Like, you said you’re always travelling and stuff, do you ever like, miss them or…?” Zayn moves awkwardly in his seat. “Again, if this is too personal you don’t have to answer.”

“No, definitely not too personal,” Harry says, but even has he says that he starts to feel an uncomfortable pull in his stomach. The anxiety and memories are going to push him over the edge if he’s not careful. He tries to take a deep breath silently, but Zayn still sees it and raises an eyebrow.

“Well,” he continues all the same, trying to offer a smile. “I definitely miss them, a lot. It’s really hard. I’ve been travelling for a long time, ever since I was little. And I wish… I wish I could see them more. Especially my mum.” He tries to hide his tears by putting his head down and taking a drink. “My mum… She means the world to me, you know?”

Zayn reaches out a hand, and Harry almost doesn’t see it, but when he does he looks up from his coffee and takes it gratefully. The pull goes away a tiny bit, although not completely.

“I definitely understand,” Zayn tells him empathetically, not seeming to find it weird or uncomfortable at all that they are holding hands. “My mum means the world to me too. I invited her to my photo gallery viewing, but she was all the way in the States at the time and couldn’t come see it. It’s definitely really tough when you can’t share your passion with your family.” Zayn wipes a tear off of his own face.

Harry stands up, walks over to Zayn’s side of the table, and gives him a big hug. Harry thinks that Zayn has no idea how much it means that someone, who has only known him for like a few days, listened so well with such an open heart, even if he has no idea what Harry actually means by ‘travelling’. Even if he may never know.

He also wonders if Zayn feels a similar way about him.

***

The two of them talk for a little bit longer, to sort of ‘wind down’ after that sad talk. However, the pull is coming, and no amount of music or photography are going to stop it this time, he can tell.

So, as soon as Harry thinks the two of them have reached a good enough stopping place, he says goodbye, thanks Zayn for letting him get this morning coffee with him, and leaves. As soon as he’s out the door he immediately starts being taken away to another time and place.

As much as time pulls are annoying and exhausting in general, it’s even more annoying when he exits one time in the day and enters another one in the night. It really messes with his head and sense of reality (which is already distorted being a time traveler).

And now that he has caffeine in his system, there’s no way he’s going to be able to sleep anytime soon either. So with a sigh of frustration, he decides to assess his surroundings.

It looks like he’s in the restroom of a very poorly managed nightclub. Now, the last thing Harry needs right now is alcohol because mixing depressants and stimulants is a bad idea. He’s learned the hard way.

Still, he’s very much not going to spend his night in this bathroom. So he walks out of there and decides to waste a few hours by doing karaoke and watching drunk people do karaoke too.

As he’s watching the drunk people sing, he pays attention to the song choices – Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus, Get Lucky by Daft Punk, Roar by Katy Perry, and Scream and Shout by will.i.am are a few – and decides to look those songs up on his phone (making sure to be very discrete about it in case this model of phone isn’t out yet). All of them are from 2013. So he concludes he must be in 2013 as well. He’s glad he’s only four years behind the present instead of a decade or something like that.

When he looks around the club he eventually lands on a calendar on the wall. It has a whole bunch of different type of alcohol spilled all over it, but he can just make out that it says November, and the current date seems to be the 23rd. He’s not completely sure because again, there are a lot of alcohol stains on it, but that’s what it looks like. November 23rd, 2013.

As he’s standing here he can’t help but find his mind going back to Zayn. This place is way more run down than Club Kiwi (which is probably saying something) but he can’t help his thoughts going back to that night.

How Zayn, after only knowing him for a day, decided to go see him perform. How Zayn found him after his performance and made sure he knew how great he was. How the two of them talked to each other for so long they lost track of time in a different way than Harry usually does.

He sighs, deciding he can no longer watch all of these happy people. Now that it’s been a few hours and the caffeine has mostly settled down, he decides to get out of here and look for the closest and least shady looking hotel.

That night he dreams about how much more fun tonight could have been if Zayn had been by his side. It doesn’t matter how smelly, how unsanitary, how run-down the place is. If Zayn was by his side it would automatically be a better night, no matter where the two of them are.

When he wakes up, he instantly feels underdressed. He’s outside on the grass, and a few feet above him he can see people in suits and dresses. There’s an altar, and two people are looking in each other’s eyes like they are deeply in love. One is a blue-eyed brunette wearing a tuxedo, and one is blue-eyed, blonde, and wearing a white dress. Quite clearly a wedding.

He feels like he should find a place to hide because he doesn’t have an invitation and has no right to be on this private property, but he can’t look away. He can’t help it. He’s always been a sucker for weddings. Call him a hopeless romantic, he’ll take it as a compliment.

“Do you, Niall,” the priest says. “Take Louis to be your husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” the blonde one responds.

“And do you, Louis,” the priest continues. “Take Niall to be your wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” the brunette – Louis – wipes a tear off his face. He’ll probably deny that to his wife later.

“Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.” Harry finds himself tearing up a bit as he watches the newlyweds waste no time in grabbing each other and kissing a lot.

At one point they go a bit too far for the priest’s liking (who turns away), but looking through the crowd it would seem the priest is the only one who wasn’t expecting that as everybody else is laughing.

Harry knows this is his cue to leave because right after the newlyweds finally remove their lips from each other, it will be time for the reception, and if he gets caught here with no invitation it will be all over.

However, just as he’s about to get up and find a hiding spot, he freezes. There, rising from his seat in a red and black suit, is Zayn. Harry puts his hand over his lip to stop himself from gasping. A small exhale still escapes all the same.

He’s so beautiful from head to toe. A red suit jacket, a white shirt underneath it with a perfectly tied black bow tie, and black-and-red suit pants. The look probably shouldn’t work on any normal person, but Zayn has never been normal.

Harry doesn’t know how long he sits there and just stares before Zayn finishes talking to Niall and Louis and starts to move to the reception. However, before he does, he squints in Harry’s direction. Soon he seems to realize he recognizes who he sees and a gasp forms on his face.

He goes back over to Niall and Louis. The three of them exchange words, as well as some looks Harry doesn’t know how to interpret, and then with a final nod from the bride, Zayn turns around and starts toward Harry.

He doesn’t look happy.

When he reaches Harry, he says in a very soft tone so as not to disturb the wedding guests, “What the f*** are you doing here?”

Definitely not happy.

“I…” Harry blinks a few times, speechless on how to respond to that. “What are you talking about?”

Zayn chuckles but there’s no humor in it. “You know d*** well what I’m talking about, Harry. I thought you were my friend. I thought, even if he travels a lot, hey, maybe he will finally settle down somewhere and the two of us could be friends or maybe…”

He doesn’t finish that sentence though, and just shakes his head instead. “Well you know what, it doesn’t f***ing matter what I thought we could be. Because you left me with no warning whatsoever, and never even responded to a single text I sent. Treated me like I was nothing.” He pauses for a minute and ducks away, but Harry can hear a little sniffle from him. “And now you just show up at my best friends’ wedding? And for what?!”

“I… I…” Harry is shaking his head, tears starting in his eyes. No, no. He would never ditch Zayn, he would never ignore his texts. What kind of cruel future is he in right now.

“Yeah, exactly!” Zayn says, like that confirms all of his theories. “You know what Harry, the next time you make promises you don’t intend to keep, save it for someone else.”

With that, he walks back up to the wedding, not looking back for even a second. Zayn said all of that soft enough so nobody but the two of them could hear it, but to Harry it was like he was on a loud speaker announcing it to everybody around them.

As he’s sitting there, eyes following Zayn all the way into the reception tent, he wants to cry. He wants to cry so hard but the tears won’t come out of him. More than anything now he wants to be back in the present. He wants to explain everything to Zayn, he wants to avoid this future from happening at all costs. This can’t be their future, it can’t.

_Flash._

He’s gone from the wedding but somehow he can just tell he’s still not back in the present. And all at once he starts crying. Loud, hard, not caring who else sees or hears him. _Please,_ he thinks to himself. _Please put me back in the present. Please let me see him again. I have to tell him the truth…_

“Hey, are you okay?” someone taps him on the shoulder. He really doesn’t want to interact with anybody right now, but he’s never been one to ignore people who are just trying to help.

He looks up and immediately wishes he hadn’t. He lets out a gigantic gasp, which probably draws a few more eyes.

“I’m sorry,” a younger Zayn than the one he just saw at the wedding says. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, I’m just…” he sniffles, really not in the mood to play the game where he pretends not to know who someone is. “I just recently lost someone I care about…” He breaks into tears again.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” And just like that, Zayn once again proves to Harry what an amazing person he is no matter what time. This younger Zayn doesn’t even realize he knows him, doesn’t recognize him a single bit, and is still reaching down to give him a big hug.

***

It keeps happening. Every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. It’s the worst train of back-and-forth he’s had to go through since he was eighteen and discovered photography.

Harry knows his strengths and weaknesses. He knows anxiety makes the pull worse, and yet, he can’t take any photos, can’t write any songs, can’t bring himself to do anything to calm down his anxiety.

All he can do is embrace the anxiety and wallow in it. Anxiety that he’ll never see the present Zayn again. Anxiety that their future is doomed. Anxiety because he should have known better than to think he could keep even one friend in the life he has. Anxiety.

Finally, one day, he decides that he does miss his artistry. He decides he’s dumb for letting the anxiety take over and take him away from the things he loves. Because if his friendship with Zayn is doomed, he might as well get used to enjoying his own version of the present again.

So that day he books a gig for the closest nightclub he can find. After doing so, he spends the rest of the day working on a song to play at it. He buys a notebook to write ideas on.

Of course, even as he’s trying to write a song, his thoughts keep going back to Zayn. He tries to fight them, but ultimately knows he can’t. So instead he decides to channel his feelings about him into a song. Once the ideas start blooming, they don’t stop until he’s done and satisfied with what he wrote.

Two days pass of him staying in the same time thanks to working really hard on his craft, and finally it’s time for him to perform at the nightclub. He shows up right on time, with an energy that can’t be defeated.

When it’s his turn to perform, he sees Zayn in the audience because of course he would be there. He doesn’t know whether this is a past, present, or future, but in any case he takes a deep breath in and out and gets on with the show.

“Good evening everybody,” he says into the microphone. “I am Harry Styles and I’m excited to perform for you all tonight.” His hands go to the guitar now and he feels at home as he starts singing and playing, beginning with two of his older works and concluding with the song he’s been working on the past few days.

“ _I wanna write you a song_ ,” he sings. “ _One as beautiful as you are sweet. With just a hint of pain for the feeling that I get when you’re gone. I wanna write you a song…_ ” As he sings these words, no matter how hard he tries, he can’t help but have his gaze keep coming back to Zayn. Because, well, Zayn is who the song is about.

He tries to decipher Zayn’s facial expressions, to figure out what Zayn thinks of him in the time they are currently in. When he accidentally strums the wrong chord, he realizes he’s trying too hard and getting nowhere, so he just focuses on singing.

By the time Harry is finished with his performance, he definitely needs a drink. So he makes his way off stage and heads to the bar, simultaneously wanting to see Zayn and not wanting to see Zayn at all. He ultimately decides to just sit down and enjoy the taste of his virgin drink.

That is until a hand taps him on the shoulder.

 

 

**Zayn**

It’s been weirding Zayn out, to put it lightly. The fact that one minute he’s having coffee with Harry for what he believes is his second time ever in his life talking to this guy, and then the next minute he suddenly has all these memories of Harry that he didn’t even know were there.

So he decided to try to find Mr. Harry Styles himself by searching local nightclubs, and ask him what he thinks about all of this. He would never have expected the answer he got.

“Harry, I need to talk to you,” Zayn starts after tapping him on the shoulder. Harry has a bit of a resigned look on his face. Zayn can understand, “we need to talk” makes him feel anxious too. Still Harry motions for Zayn to sit down next to him, taking a swig of his drink.

He just kind of gives Zayn a look that says ‘go on’ instead of actually saying it, so Zayn obliges. “Harry, I don’t understand. I thought the two of us had just met for the first time a few days ago, but suddenly I have all these memories from over the years with you in them. I’m not sure why. Do you have any idea what the heck is happening?”

Harry closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Yes, Zayn. I do. But if I tell you, you won’t believe me.”

“Honestly I’d probably believe anything at this point.” Zayn giggles slightly. “Just tell me what you’re thinking.”

Harry bites his lips, obviously having a hard time with these words. Zayn isn’t sure what at all to expect, but what he expected to hear the least was: “I’m a time traveler.”

Zayn scoffs. “Harry, be serious.”

“I _am_ being serious,” he insists, but Zayn is still not believing it. Grumbling, Harry shifts in his seat. “Let me buy you a drink, this is going to take a while.”

So Zayn drinks and warily listens as Harry spins a tale, starting from when he was in fifth grade and first told he was going to time travel forever, to when it started happening, to how he discovered music and photography, all the way to now.

Zayn’s not sure how to respond to it, but he knows there’s no way it could all be made-up – especially since he recognizes some of the memories he talked about.

“Well…” he says, with a slight laugh. “I don’t know what to say really, but I believe you.”

Harry chuckles a bit himself. “Told you you’d need the drink.”

“You were right.” Zayn takes a sip of said drink now, thinking some. “So like, that was you on the mountain with me and my mum?”

“Yeah.” Harry blushes. “That’s why I wanted to buy that picture, to be honest. It was the first time I had kind of had a friend since this started happening.”

Zayn grins uncontrollably at this. “You know, it had always weirded me out that you just… disappeared when we dropped you off. But my mum always said I had just been seeing things so I just kind of accepted that I guess. It’s good to know I wasn’t just seeing things after all.”

“Yeah…” Harry somehow sounds equal parts amused and sad at that. “I felt so guilty for weeks after that. But unfortunately there was no way for me to fix it…”

“So like, can you control at all where you end up?” Zayn asks now. “If so, are you choosing to end up in the same places as me on purpose?”

Zayn just catches Harry’s face turning an all-time pink before he turns away. “Umm… No, no I really don’t have a choice in the matter unfortunately.”

He’s still not looking at him, and a realization suddenly dawns on Zayn. “I wasn’t trying to _imply_ anything, I was just honestly wondering!” Now he’s blushing too. He can’t believe Harry thought he was trying to say that.

Harry clears his throat and turns back to face him. “So… the weather is nice…” Zayn just laughs awkwardly, not saying anything. He can’t help but notice Harry’s embarrassed smile slowly changing to a frown. Before he can say anything about it, Harry speaks again.

“To tell you the truth though, I think my brain was purposely putting me in places you were, but not for a good reason.” He pauses, looking like he’s thinking about whether or not he should continue. “There was one time I went to a few days ago – maybe a week ago, I don’t know, time sort of blurs when you’re travelling through it all the time – and it was the future. And you were mad at me in the future because I never contacted you again after, after our coffee…”

He clears his throat, looking down at the table. “And I was really anxious that that was going to be the real future. That you would hate me for never talking to you again. But, I’m glad my senses decided to finally let me back in 2017. Because I knew from that moment I had to tell you the truth. I had to make sure you knew that… that I would never just stop talking to you forever.”

Zayn is taken aback by this. He’s not sure what to do really, so he tries his luck at putting his hand in Harry’s. Harry looks up at the action, but doesn’t shy away from it, so he takes that as a good sign.

“Well,” Zayn tells him now. “I can say with one hundred percent certainty, that since you told me that, that will never be the real future.”

Harry smiles sadly at that, and the two boys share a very long hug. Zayn is so glad Harry told him this, and he absolutely plans to keep his promise. He hopes, no matter what it takes, that the two of them will be able to stay friends.

***

The next day, Zayn is with Liam at a coffee shop. As Zayn is sitting there, taking a gulp of his freshly brewed coffee, he can’t help but think about a few days ago when he and Harry were here, how they laughed at each other for their differing views on black coffee and how much creamer should be in it.

Zayn still thinks there should be none at all, and he plans to continue being stubborn about that position until he’s old and yelling at kids to get off his lawn. He tries to put his brain back into the present though because this is one of the last days that Liam will be in town, so he has to enjoy every moment of it.

Liam is even worse than Harry. He gags at the very idea of having anything to do with coffee, creamer or no creamer. So there he is across from Zayn with his large hot chocolate, having a fun time licking all the whipped cream off the top of the cup. Zayn shakes his head, chuckling.

“Wha’?” Liam asks, like he doesn’t realize he has a mouth full of whipped cream right as he’s speaking.

“Bro,” Zayn’s chuckle turns into a full-on cackle now. “Please, I can’t talk to you when you’ve got a whipped cream ‘stache.”

Liam sticks his tongue out, no doubt doing it purposely to make Zayn disgusted. It works, as Zayn immediately has to avert his eyes and look down at his mug, taking another gulp.

When he looks back up, Liam is licking the last of the whipped cream off his lips. Then he asks, “Why are you so distracted?”

Zayn laughs. “Sorry I didn’t want to look at your whipped cream covered tongue.”

“No, not just now,” Liam tells him. “I’m talking about in general today. You seem very distracted and haven’t really been saying much.”

Zayn almost considers not telling Liam anything, but ever since the two of them met in Uni, there’s always been something about Liam that lets him know he can tell him literally anything and not be judged. So he decides to tell him.

“I’m just thinking a lot about this guy…” He takes a full sip of his coffee this time since it’s finally starting to cool.

“Oh yeah?” Liam asks, prodding for more. “Is it that guy that you’ve been hanging out with the last few days?” Zayn raises an eyebrow, trying to figure out how he knew about this. “I saw your Instagram selfie with him at this very place a few days ago.”

“Oh.” Zayn can’t believe he already forgot about that. “Yeah, that’s him.” He sighs, aimlessly playing with his mug, twirling it around slowly. “I don’t know man, he’s travelling so much and I never know the next time I’m going to be able to talk to him or whatever…”

“Do you have his phone number?” Liam offers as a solution.

“Yeah but…” Zayn grumbles, wishing it was easier to talk about this. No way Liam would believe him though. He then realizes how difficult it must have been for Harry to tell him. “I don’t know, I like having a laugh with him in person and… stuff…” It’s so hard to put it into words. “I just wish I could be with him on all his travels.”

After a few moments of thinking (and drinking some hot chocolate), Liam finally responds. “It sounds like you like him, mate.”

“…What?” Zayn looks up from his mug now.

Liam just shrugs, chugging some more of his hot chocolate and wiping his mouth. “I mean, you just said that you wish you could be with him all the time. That you really love hanging out with him. Sounds like you like him to me.”

Now it’s Zayn’s turn to think and drink. He never considered it, but maybe he does. He really hopes that’s not the case though, because then it would make it even more heartbreaking if Harry got lost in a time far away from the present and never came back. He shivers at the thought and then realizes… Liam might have a point.

***

Later that day, Harry calls Zayn. Zayn almost wants to laugh because of course Harry would call him when he can’t stop thinking about him. Maybe it’s like a sixth sense of time travelers or something to know when you’re thinking about them.

“Hi Harry,” Zayn starts, hoping his voice sounds semi-normal and doesn’t give away the fact that he’s been thinking about Harry and what Liam said for the past like, three hours.

“Hey Zayn,” Harry responds cheerfully. Zayn decides to count that response as a success. “I know this probably sounds weird, but I would like you to see where I live.”

“How can you live somewhere when you’re ‘traveling’ all the time?” Zayn asks with a smirk, trying to ignore the butterflies in his tummy at Harry inviting him to his house.

“Well, I always seem to come back to the present in the end, even if weeks pass in my time before that happens.” He takes a bite of something. “So what do you say? If I send you the address will you come over to my house? My parents are still at work so-”

“Like a date?” Zayn asks before he loses the nerve to say it. He wants to see how Harry will react to the idea of him calling it a ‘date’. If Zayn really does like him like Liam said – and he’s starting to think he does – he wants to find out if Harry feels the same way before he falls too deep.

A few moments of silence, and then, “…What?” with his voice cracking at the end.

Well, guess that answers his question. He sighs. “Nevermind, just send me the address yeah? I’ll… I’ll be there…”

“Zayn, wait, are you saying you want it to be-”

Zayn hangs up before he can finish that question. Harry doesn’t call back, but he does send him the address. Zayn almost doesn’t want to go after all now, but if they are meant to just be friends, he wants to be the best friend he can be. So he does.

Once he arrives, he can already feel the awkwardness in the air. To his credit though, Harry does try his best to ignore the elephant in the room and act like everything is one hundred percent normal.

“Do you want some cookies?” he asks, an obviously awkward smile forced on his face. “My dad made them before he left.”

“Sure!” Zayn agrees, playing along.

Harry gives him a cookie, and gets himself a cookie as well. The two of them sit down at the living room couch like an arms distance from each other, which is a complete 180 from how close they were seated just a few days ago at the coffee shop – or even on the mountain too. It’s very weird.

“So…” Harry continues. “Taken any good pictures lately?”

“Yeah,” Zayn answers, taking a big bite of the cookie. He doesn’t want to be the first one to talk about it; he already was the first one to talk about it on the phone. “I got some really cool ones of, like, the sunset the other night. It was like a combination of orange and pink. It was really beautiful.”

Harry nods, and a few moments pass of the only sound being the two boys chewing. Finally, Harry breaks character. “Okay, that’s it. Zayn,” he looks into his eyes. “What you said on the phone…”

“Look Harry,” Zayn interrupts, taking a last bite of the cookie and licking his fingers. “We can just forget about it, okay? If this isn’t a date, it isn’t a date.” He shrugs. “I’m sorry I assumed it was.”

“No, but I just… It is,” Harry says, and wow… Zayn wasn’t expecting that. He almost thinks he feels the cookie coming back up from his stomach. “I mean, it is if you want it to be. Do you want it to be one?”

“Do you?”

“I-” Harry fumbles on his words, and darn Zayn if he doesn’t find that absolutely adorable. “Yes, I do. I do if you do.”

Zayn laughs loudly. “Well, I do if you do too. So I guess we’re on the same page then.”

“Yay!” Harry claps his hands, resulting in another giggle from Zayn. “I mean umm… cool. You want another cookie?”

Zayn shakes his head at Harry’s antics, but makes sure to nod immediately afterwards. He definitely loves these cookies.

And after that… Well, nothing big happens. They just hang out like they have been. But there still is a new air in the room of mutual romantic love, which is a great feeling.

Harry shows Zayn (almost) all of the pictures on his camera, and Zayn gasps at some of them. Harry really has travelled all across time and all across the world in the process. So many different museums, monuments, bodies of water, and sunsets. It’s all so beautiful.

“So,” Zayn asks him now. “Have you ever, like, taken anybody with you when you go to a different time?”

“Well,” Harry considers this. “No, not really. My parents had no idea when my first trip would be, as you can imagine, so there’s no way they could have known when to go with me. And well, other than you, they’re the only ones who know.”

Zayn chooses his next words carefully. Even though they are dating now, he still has those butterflies. “Would you, like, ever consider taking someone with you? Taking _me_ with you?”

Harry starts smiling really wide. “I would love that.” He pauses. “But it might catch you a little off guard at first, being here one minute and in the future or past the next.”

“I know. Well, I mean, I don’t _know_. But I think I’m up for the climb.” Harry laughs at that.

Zayn stays a little bit longer before leaving. He’s due for a photoshoot of this playground. It won’t have any actual children on it at this hour, so he will have the perfect opportunities for good grassland photos.

As he waves goodbye to Harry, he feels like he’s walking on air. He can’t remember the last time he was this happy. He hopes Liam is still awake so he can tell him about it after the photoshoot.

 

 

**Harry**

After Harry’s date with Zayn he’s on cloud nine. It went so amazingly, and there was no awkwardness at all after they decided it was in fact a date.

He practically falls straight into his bed that night, repeating images of tonight over and over again. For the first time in his life he doesn’t think he needs to take a picture to remember the beauty of this moment.

***

When he wakes up, the happiness he felt last night still hasn’t gone away. He feels very warm and not just from the blanket he wrapped himself up in.

He also feels hints of a pull starting, and decides that it’s probably from his overwhelming happiness from the previous evening. At the thought of Zayn, Harry suddenly remembers where Zayn said he would be today for his next photoshoot.

So, getting his wallet, he hops on the nearest bus and heads for the dog park. As the bus is making its way there, he silently has to wonder whether Zayn actually chose to do this photoshoot because of the nature or because it has all the adorable dogs. He’s thinking it’s the latter.

After paying the bus driver and stepping outside to the dog park, it doesn’t take him that long to find Zayn. Sure enough, he’s spending a lot of time with the various dogs and there’s not a camera in sight. He also sees Niall and Louis there, who are shaking their heads at Zayn.

Harry walks over behind Zayn and surprises him. “So, how’s that photoshoot going?” He teases.

Zayn screams for a single second. “Harry, what the heck are you doing? You scared the dogs!” Harry takes a good look at the dogs, who still look the same as before he ran up.

“Yeah, sure, I scared the dogs. Anyways, so what about that photoshoot?” Niall and Louis snicker behind them.

Zayn glares at all three of them. “For your information, I am done taking photos for the day and am about to leave after I finish hanging out with these little guys.” He wraps his arms around the dogs again, and he looks absolutely adorable.

“Yeah,” Niall says now. “He’s been ‘about to leave’ for about two hours now.” Louis fist bumps Niall after she says that, and Zayn looks up angrily at both of them.

“Alright,” Harry interrupts them before they really start. “Well, while I’m sure hanging out with all of these dogs is very important to you, I came here because I was hoping you could come over to my house for what we talked about last night.”

Zayn turns to face him now. “Oh, you mean it’s about to happen? Already?”

 “I mean, the two of you have been sneaking around for a while now,” Louis teases. “It actually surprises me that ‘it’ _hasn’t_ happened yet.”

Harry just lets the two of them think what they think, focusing on Zayn. “Yes, it is. And I need you with me when it does.”

“Well how else is it supposed to happen?” Niall comments.

“Well, you know musicians do like to…. Strum,” Louis responds, with the two cracking up.

Harry bites his lip really hard. “So,” he says with quite a bit of difficulty. “Will you come with me?”

“Oh for sure,” Zayn nods, seeming to not have as much trouble ignoring Niall and Louis. Probably because he’s been working on that almost his whole life, Harry thinks. “Let me just pick up my stuff and we can go.”

As the two of them head out of the park with Zayn’s stuff, Niall yells (with absolutely no shame at all), “Don’t forget to use a condom!”

Harry’s cheeks don’t stop being red the entire way on the bus home.

***

“Okay,” Harry says as the two of them lay down next to each other on his bed – because Harry has found it’s best to be as relaxed as possible when you’re about to go to another time. “So as I warned you before, it’s going to be a little bit disorienting at first. I’ve never done this with anybody else before so I’m not sure what the side effects on you could be, so just be prepared for-”

“Harry,” Zayn interrupts, putting his hand in Harry’s. “I’m not scared. As long as I have you, I know I can handle anything.”

Harry gulps, his heart beating super fast. He can tell by its speed that the pull is about to come, so he squeezes Zayn’s hand really hard. “O-okay then. Here we go.”

He doesn’t let go for a single second until they land, so to speak. Defying the laws of, well, pretty much all science, when it ends the two of them are on two separate chairs, no longer holding hands.

As he looks around, he quickly realizes the two of them are at a table in a pool hall. And when he looks to the side, he sees three people playing – it looks like a young Zayn, along with a young Louis and a young blonde person.

“Oh my gosh,” Zayn mutters. “That’s me, isn’t it?”

Harry turns back to him and stares a bit judgmentally. “How could you not recognize yourself?”

“Well, sorry,” Zayn surrenders, putting his hands up. “I don’t have the way my younger self looked in motion memorized. But that is definitely Niall and Louis, so the other one must be me.”

Harry is confused and almost shocked. This person is named Niall… Is this the same Niall he saw getting married to Louis in the future? The same Niall who was teasing Zayn this afternoon at the dog park? No way. She looks completely different, and he can hear the past Zayn and Louis using different pronouns on her.

“Wait… That’s Niall? But-”

“Yeah,” Zayn nods. “She hadn’t come out to us yet. But when she did, we kind of threw a party at Nando’s for her.” He smiles at the memory.

He is speaking really quietly, Harry notices. Maybe he’s trying to make sure his younger self doesn’t hear or see him. Harry can completely understand that, of course. Non-time travelers seeing their past or future selves just doesn’t happen.

Harry turns back to the past Zayn and grins. As he’s sitting there, he compares what Zayn just said about Niall with how teenage Zayn is interacting with his friends, and thinks that Zayn is just the perfect friend to have.

He cares so much about all the people around him – friends, family, even complete strangers he’s never met before (like Harry… twice) – and that just proves to Harry that he is truly an amazing person.

“You know,” teenage Zayn says. “This would be a lot more fun if it was even instead of you two against one me.”

“You’re just mad me and Nialler are crushing you,” Louis responds.

“Well… Yeah. I kind of am. Because it’s not fair.”

“All’s fair in love and pool,” Louis replies dramatically. Niall laughs, giving him a cheek kiss.

Harry shakes his head. He thinks even if he hadn’t seen their future wedding, it would still be obvious to anyone with eyes that these two are smitten with each other.

“My gosh,” adult Zayn comments, echoing Harry’s thoughts. “The two of them are so ridiculous. I still can’t believe it took them until our senior year of college to finally start dating.”

Harry almost chokes on his own saliva. “Your senior year? You’re kidding, right?”

“Wish I was,” Zayn shakes his head. “But thank goodness they eventually got their s*** together.” Harry chuckles, agreeing with that.

The two of them stay there a little bit longer, until Zayn decides it’s too weird for him to keep looking at his past self. So they make their way to the dance floor on the other side of the hall.

As soon as they walk in, they are immediately met with the sound of slow music.

“Well,” Zayn says. “Since the two of us are a sappy couple now, it’s only fair that we dance, is it not?”

“Of course,” Harry responds. He takes Zayn’s hands in his, and it’s quite obvious just looking around the room at everyone else that the two of them have no clue what they are doing. Zayn and Harry are the two middle graders awkwardly trying to impress each other in the middle of professional dancers who have performed for the queen.

Luckily though, it doesn’t seem to matter, because a few moments into their awkward dance, the pull starts again and they are yanked from the dance hall back to Harry’s bed.

After the initial shock of coming back from the past fades, the two of them stare at each other for a while with smiles on their faces.

“So,” Harry says, not letting go of Zayn’s hand even though they aren’t dancing anymore. “How was that?”

“About the same as being in the present with you,” Zayn responds, rubbing a circle around Harry’s hand. “Magical.”

Harry feels his cheeks heat up as he giggles loudly. “Hey, _I_ was supposed to be the cheesy one in this relationship.”

“You never called dibs!” Zayn is obviously trying to stifle a laugh of his own as he says that.

“Well I’m calling dibs now!” Harry tries.

“Fine, fine, fine.” Zayn pauses for a moment. “We can both be the cheesy ones.”

Harry laughs again, with Zayn joining in. As the two of them slowly stop laughing, their lips become closer to each other’s, until finally they’re kissing. It’s so soft, and yet so intimate at the same time. _Definite cheesy rom com moment_ , Harry thinks to himself. And he means that as a compliment.

Another thing Harry thinks in that moment is that, when he’s with Zayn he has no fear of being taken away from the present. He has no fear of waking up in a different time. When he is with Zayn, it’s like when he is on stage with his guitar, or when he is outside taking pictures. He is home.

 

**Zayn**

“I thought you were a nature photographer!” Harry complains while posing in front of an incredible view of mountains.

The two of them hiked together to the top of this hill, with Zayn saying he wanted to go to ‘take pictures for his portfolio’. And well, he did actually take a few pictures of the overlook of the mountains, but he also had another goal in his mind.

“I am,” Zayn responds, clicking the button on his camera several times in a row. “You’re the most beautiful nature there is.”

“Okay that was a little too cheesy even for us.” Harry giggles, but despite his words, is still posing for the picture. “And besides, it’s also untrue. Those mountains behind me for example are far more beautiful than I will ever be.”

“Oh shut up and let me do my work,” Zayn commands, but is still endeared all the same. Harry lets out one more giggle and then does, in fact, shut up and let Zayn do his work.

Not all of them are the most ‘professionally’ done photos by a long shot, especially since Harry is sticking out his tongue in ninety percent of them. But they are still some of Zayn’s favorite pictures ever taken because Harry is part of them.

“Okay, are you done yet?” Harry asks after several rounds of this. “Because I want to take some pictures of the nature too you know.”

“Go for it.”

While Harry is taking pictures with his camera of the mountains from pretty much every angle he can, Zayn sneaks a few photos of Harry’s back for… scientific purposes.

What he doesn’t expect is that as soon as he takes another picture of his back, Harry spins around the last second and takes a picture of Zayn taking a picture. “Aha!” Harry announces. “Payback!”

“You are deleting that picture right now,” Zayn says.

“Why? It’s just a picture of you taking a picture. What’s the problem?”

“I wasn’t ready!”

“And I wasn’t ready for any of those pictures you were taking of my behind.” Harry smirks as Zayn blushes. “So we’re even.”

“Fine, yeah, we’re even.” Zayn waits a second, and then starts putting his stuff away. “You ready to go now?”

Harry swallows a sip of water from his bottle. “Sure.” He picks up his bag and puts it back around his shoulders. “Thank you for coming with me on this. It was a lot of f- HEY!”

Before Harry can finish putting his camera in his bag, Zayn takes it out of his hands and immediately starts running down the trail, narrowly avoiding walkers who are on their way up.

Zayn has a lot of practice with going up and down hills and the like for his job, but he still knows there’s no way he’s faster than Harry, who must have had to do a lot of walking in all his time travels. So he hurries in turning on the camera and opening the list of pictures.

Just as he’s about to press delete though, Harry yanks it out of his hands and steps in front of him with a smug look on his face.

“You know Zayn,” he says as he carefully puts the camera into his bag, still keeping hard eye contact with him. “It’s not very nice to steal another person’s camera. I’m pretty sure your bosses would very much disapprove of it.”

“They’d understand if they knew the picture on there I was deleting,” Zayn responds matter-of-factly. He doesn’t actually believe it but he’s having fun playing this game.

“Oh really. I’m gonna call Louis right now and find out what he thinks about that.”

“Louis? Since when do you have his phone number?” Zayn asks, genuinely surprised.

With a wink, Harry takes his phone out of his pocket, dials a number, and starts running.

***

On their next date, Harry is very quiet. Which is odd for him because he’s like, the most extroverted person Zayn knows – other than Niall at least. Zayn likes quiet most of the time, but when he’s with Harry, he doesn’t like it because it means something is probably wrong.

It starts getting late and Harry still hasn’t said much, so Zayn decides to be the one to bring it up finally. “Harry, what’s on your mind? You look distracted…”

Taking a sip of his drink, Harry makes strong eye contact with Zayn and says in a soft voice, “My parents want to meet you.”

“Well that sounds exciting! I would love to meet them!” Zayn responds immediately, not sure what could make that such a scary thing to say.

“But Zayn,” Harry continues. “What if you don’t like them? And what if they don’t like you? I couldn’t bear it if either of those things happened…” He looks down at his cup sadly.

Zayn puts his hand in Harry’s. “Don’t worry, babe. I like you, so I am sure I will like them too. After all, they’re the ones who brought you into this world so I have to thank them for that.” He winks exaggeratedly to lighten the mood.

It apparently works because Harry laughs and after that, the two do end up talking a little bit before they both have to go back home. They end by making a plan for Harry to introduce Zayn to his parents tomorrow evening.

***

Zayn and Harry are having dinner with Harry’s parents at a fancy Italian restaurant. How Harry could _possibly_ have enough money to pay for a night at this place amazes him. Even with his pretty well-paying photography job, the prices on the menu made his head explode.

Still, Harry promised that he got it covered, and Zayn was too mesmerized by the prices to object.

The actual dinner is going very well. In between bites of his chicken marsala, he is having a great time talking to Harry’s parents, Anne and Robin, and they seem to enjoy talking to him as well. After he told them he was a nature photographer, they were immediately amazed and said that sounded like such a fun job.

Harry is a bit too busy still eating the appetizer bread to comment much, but he’s cute so Zayn lets it slide. Anne says to him that he shouldn’t stuff that much food in his mouth at once, but all he does is shrug and continue what he’s doing, and she doesn’t push it further afterwards. Zayn lightly chuckles at how chill Harry’s family seems to be.

“So Zayn,” Robin says after taking a swig of his wine. “Harry told us about you two’s adventure.” It takes a second for Zayn to comprehend what he’s talking about, but then he nods.

“Oh yeah,” he responds. “It was sick. Well, except for how awkward the two of us were in the dance hall.” He giggles at the memory. “I think we need lessons or something before we attempt that again.”

“Heeey,” Harry comments now. “I think we were cute. No, actually, you said we were magical. That’s right, we’re magical.”

“Wow Harry, I forgot what your voice sounded like with how much bread you’ve been stuffing in your mouth all night.” Zayn already knows what Harry’s about to do, and sure enough, with a smirk on his face Harry flips him off, but does it so only he can see it and not his parents. Then he stuffs another piece of bread in his mouth for good measure. Zayn cracks up, he loves this guy so much.

Harry’s parents both share looks of endearment and it makes Zayn feel all fuzzy inside. Anne is the next one to speak. “You boys’ adventure really reminds me of an adventure me and Robin went on one time.”

“Oh yeah?” Zayn asks, intrigued. He straightens his back, not having realized until now that he had started slouching.

She nods. “I didn’t marry Robin until I was forty-four. And a lot of my fellow time travelers would tell me that the constant traveling back and forth would stop – or at the very least, slow down a lot, by the time you were that age. Well, I was forty and thinking ‘that’s a load of bulls***.’” Zayn nearly chokes on his marsala. He had not expected her to curse.

“It’s true,” she continues. “I was in my forties and still traveling through time at least once every week. I hadn’t found something that could make me stay in the present. That is, until I met Robin.” She smiles and Zayn sees Robin squeeze her hand. “He was a time traveler like me. The two of us went on a few adventures through time together once we found out it was something we shared. However, the closer we got the less we were anxious around each other.

“And the less anxious we were around each other,” she looks into his eyes with the widest smile on her face. “The more anchored we felt to the present. Because we had found our stabilizer, our way to stop the pulls.”

Zayn has to cover his mouth. Harry’s parents just said that he and their son remind them of how they found their true stabilizer. Basically implying that they think Zayn and Harry are also soulmates, and that it’s possible for the two of them to have a long relationship together that keeps Harry in the present for a long, long time. Maybe even forever.

As he turns to Harry, he can tell he’s thinking the exact same thing.

***

That night, instead of going back to his parents’ house, Harry goes back to Zayn’s. The whole way home Zayn can tell that Harry has something really important to talk to Zayn about, and judging by the faces they gave each other after Anne’s story was over, Zayn thinks he knows what it’s about. The future. The future in real-time, not the type of future that Harry is used to going to.

Only a few seconds pass after they get in Zayn’s house and sit down on the couch before Harry speaks. “My mum never told me that story.”

Zayn hums questionably in response. Harry seems to have such a close relationship with his parents that he finds it hard to believe last night was the first time she told him the story of how she met his father. Matter of fact, wouldn’t he have been alive to see it if she didn’t meet Robin until she was forty?

“I mean,” Harry continues, answering Zayn’s unspoken question. “I knew some of that, but she never told me that both her and my dad stopped time-jumping once they had known each other for a while. I didn’t know it was actually possible to fully stop.”

“Why wouldn’t your parents tell you something like that?”

“I don’t know.” Harry considers this. “Maybe… Maybe she didn’t want me to get my hopes up in case I never found someone who could do that for me.”

Zayn doesn’t know what to say to that because it feels like there’s nothing to say. It’s better, for both of them, to just think about it.

As he sits there, that’s exactly what he does. He thinks about it, how _he_ is Harry’s person that can keep him in the present for a very long time. He repeats that several times. Wow, he is that person. That’s a large responsibility.

What if they break up one day? What if it doesn’t work out in the end and he sends Harry through another spiral of Zayn-inspired time jumps? That’s a very huge burden to bear, and Zayn’s never really been one to be able to handle big responsibilities like that, at least he doesn’t think of himself as one.

But then he thinks about Anne. Obviously she had to have relationships with people other than Robin – Harry is proof of that. And yet she didn’t ‘settle down,’ so to speak, until she met Robin and became his soulmate.

So maybe, maybe it’s not so intimidating after all. Maybe instead it is a sign that this is meant to be, and will be, for a very long time. He smiles at that thought.

The two of them sit there for a few more minutes until they are both too tired, and Zayn takes Harry into his room. He only has one bed, but that is no problem for the two of them at this point.

The two of them climb in it, Zayn putting his teddy bear on the bedside table. He catches Harry smiling endearingly at that. “Are you sure you’re able to sleep without that little guy tonight?”

Zayn shrugs. “Well tonight I will have my arms around you so there will be no room for him, unfortunately. I’m sure he will understand though.” He gives his teddy bear a look to make sure that’s true, as if he can actually respond.

Harry giggles. “You are so cute.” The two of them share a kiss and then turn the lights off, Harry hopping into Zayn’s arms with glee. They both fall asleep with wide smiles on their faces.

***

The next day, Zayn takes Harry to the coffee shop that has unintentionally become ‘their’ place. Not that he’s complaining of course.

“So,” Zayn starts, slightly awkwardly because he’s not completely sure how Harry is going to react. “How are you feeling since last night? About… what your mum said I mean?”

Harry takes a sip of his coffee, looking slightly surprised Zayn asked. “Well, it is a bit difficult, I guess, to come to terms with it. Mostly because I spent my whole life until yesterday thinking that I would be stuck like this until I died.” He laughs awkwardly, taking another sip.

Zayn shakes his head. “So you never noticed that she hadn’t disappeared suddenly?”

“Well that’s the thing about it, Zayn,” Harry says. “Some older time travelers, you can’t really tell when they disappear. It’s not as noticeable as a teenager or something. So no, I thought she just disappeared random times throughout each week.” He shrugs.

Zayn bites his lip, trying to think of how to best lead into this. He decides the best thing to do is just jump face-first.

“Harry, do you remember when I talked to you after your show at Club Kiwi?” Harry nods, mouth full. “Because I remember, one of the first things you said to me, was that you wanted to go to Uni but you couldn’t because you were travelling all the time.” Harry stays silent even after removing his mug from his mouth.

“So… Since you are now going to be in the present for a long time,” Zayn continues, biting his lip again. He silently prays that he’s not making Harry uncomfortable by talking about this. He seemed really zoned out when the two were on his couch last night. “Do you think, maybe, you would consider going to Uni?”

He watches Harry for a reaction for a few seconds, but when Harry just keeps blinking and not saying anything, he turns his gaze to the table, taking sips of his coffee to fill the silence. Why did he bring this up? What a dumb idea. Obviously Harry doesn’t want to talk about this so soon after-

“You really think I could do Uni?” Harry asks genuinely. Zayn looks up at that, surprised. “I mean, it’s been so long since I finished my GCSEs, I don’t know if I’m smart enough for it anymore…”

Zayn is shocked at the words Harry is saying. “Harry… Are you really asking that?” He doesn’t give him a chance to say yes though. “Have you even met some of the guys that go to Uni? A lot of them don’t have a passion for anything and are just there because they got lucky and got a scholarship, or rich parents. And I know you. I know you actually have the passion for photography and music. Of course you are smart enough!”

Harry is beaming now. “Well… I don’t know…”

“I do,” Zayn says. “And if you are still scared about whether or not you actually will stay in the present, you could do what I suggested and take online Uni, so that way you can do the lectures whenever you _are_ here, on your own time.”

Harry smiles very widely. “You really think I can do it, Zayn?” He nods. “Well then, I guess I’ll go home and brush the dust off those GCSEs.” The two grin at each other and enjoy the rest of their coffees in comfortable silence.

***

Harry quickly starts receiving acceptance letters from many Universities, just like Zayn knew he would. Still, even though he’s not surprised, it still makes him happy to see the amount of glee on Harry’s face as he opens each and every one of them.

Harry waits until he receives a letter from his top choice University before responding back to any of them though. It was the best day ever when he opened that letter and his top choice University said they wanted him. The two threw a big party in celebration of it.

“So,” Harry had asked. “Are you sure you will still want me even when I’m gone at University?”

Zayn scoffed. “Of course I will, you don’t even have to ask.”

Zayn isn’t sure of a lot of things, but he is sure of one thing: He loves Harry and he always will. He is so glad to have been part of Harry’s past and present and is excited for the future that is to come.


	2. Epilogue

Zayn is wearing a red suit jacket, a white shirt underneath it with a perfectly tied black bow tie, and black-and-red suit pants. Harry is wearing a black suit jacket, a white shirt underneath it with a black bow tie as well, and black suit pants. He feels underdressed in comparison to Zayn, but Zayn says he looks fine, so he tries to stop stressing about it.

The two take their seats next to each other in the yard. Harry has been to this same place and time before, but this time it’s no longer a cruel future and instead it is a very happy present.

As soon as Niall and Louis gave Zayn an invitation to their wedding (with the line next to the “+1” area already filled out as “Harry”), Harry smiled.

So much has changed since that day when Harry first saw Niall and Louis’ wedding from the sidelines. He’s graduated Uni, he’s moved out of his parents’ house, and best of all, he gets to wake up next to Zayn every single day. Who knows, maybe one day he and Zayn will be inviting Niall and Louis to _their_ wedding.

He tries to turn down that fantasy for the time being though, because today isn’t about him or Zayn. It’s about Niall and Louis.

“Do you, Niall,” the priest says now. “Take Louis to be your husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” she responds.

“And do you, Louis,” the priest continues. “Take Niall to be your wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” he wipes a tear off his face.

“Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”

As Harry stands and cheers with the rest of the audience, he starts crying. You would think, since he already saw this once, he wouldn’t be so emotional, but he can’t help it. He just loves love.

“You’re such a sap,” Zayn teases through tears of his own, which about sums up their relationship.

“Takes one to know one!” Harry wipes his eyes, attempting to look tough but failing.

“Oh shut up!” Zayn responds even though his voice is a bit distorted by how much he’s crying at his besties being married now. He ends his and Harry’s ‘argument’ by putting their lips together.

After a few minutes it’s time for everybody to go to the reception room. Zayn and Harry are two of the last ones to follow behind. As they make their way, hand in hand, to the reception room, Harry looks out into the garden and gives his past self a wink.

_Don’t worry my friend, it all works out in the end._


End file.
